I was looking at some baseball stat web pages recently and was really surprised and really annoyed by something I saw.
When I was a kid and collected baseball cards the player stats were on the back of the cards and I remember (in the early 1960's) any number of players who would have no stats listed for a given year, but rather would have the line "Active Military Service" where the stats for that year would be.
I was looking because I was trying to refresh my memory about a couple of the people on the all time home run list, mainly Willie Mays and Ted Williams.
For Willie Mays at both www.baseball-reference.com and the player history index at espn.com all of Mays' stats are given year by year. And, at first glance, you would see an uninterupted set of baseball seasons. You have to look closely to see that the year 1953 doesn't exist, it's not listed, the years go from 1952 to 1954 without even an * to note why there are not stats for that year. Well, it's because Mays was in the Army that year. There are some numbers in the 1952 year, but he lost most of that season to military service as well.
For Ted Williams the stats at the same two sites are even more telling. The stats jump from 1942 to 1946. 1943-45 simply don't exist for Williams, again without so much as even an * to tell you why. Well, it was because he was in the Army Air Corps flying a fighter plane in World War II. Of course, since he did play a little in 1952 and 1953 there are some numbers there, even though for the most part during those years he was once again serving in the military again, flying a fighter plane in the Korean War.
I'm fairly sure that no "big stars" in baseball have lost any significant playing time due to military service since the early 1960's. In the case of Mays he lost an entire year (the year before he would be the league MVP and hit 41 home runs) and the bulk of another year. Williams is probably the most significant in terms of the impact military service had on his career. He lost three complete seasons in World War II when he was clearly at the top of his abilities (he conservatively lost 100 home runs that he would have hit during that time). Even in 1952-53 Williams was one of the top hitters in the game.
The point is not that either Williams or Mays would have passed Babe Ruth had they not lost time to military service; Williams certainly would not have, although it is reasonable to assume that Mays would have been pretty close (he ended his career with 660 homes runs, only 54 short of Ruth).
The point is that even though those years don't mean anything to the baseball records, they still mean something; even in relation to baseball as an American institution. People should be allowed to see and then remember that at one time famous baseball players, and not so famous ones, had to give something up for the greater good of the country.
UPDATE: Rob Neyer at ESPN.com was kind enough to mention this blog on his blog.